Saturday, September 8, 2012

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The bees seem to have been filling up the honey supers, so I've borrowed a honey extractor -- a kind of centrifuge -- and made my first attempt to steal honey. It was utter fiasco. I started with the most cantankerous hive, couldn't get the smoker to work, but pushed on foolishly nevertheless. On tope of it all a storm was moving in, so the bees were extra irritable.

By the end of the process - after armoring up three times - I was in winter boots, gaiters, and flannel lined pants -- and covered in pissed off bees. In exchange for 9 stings I got four frames of honey.